By strengthening maternal and newborn healthcare, PPHI Sindh is building a referral network that connects communities with timely emergency and specialised care.
PPHI Sindh, with the Government of Sindh through a public-private partnership model, is working to strengthen and expand the delivery of primary healthcare services across the province. Under this collaborative agreement, the Government of Sindh and PPHI Sindh work together to support the delivery of primary healthcare services, with both contributing their respective institutional strengths, resources, expertise and oversight to strengthen healthcare services at primary healthcare facilities across the province.
The strength of a primary healthcare system should therefore be measured not only by the services it provides at the point of first contact, but also by how seamlessly it responds when an emergency demands the next level of care.
For many families in rural Sindh, the greatest challenge in accessing healthcare is not simply finding a health facility. It is reaching the right facility at the right time.
For a pregnant woman facing complications during labour, or a newborn requiring urgent medical care with specialised treatment, every minute matters. A health facility may be available in the community, but when the required treatment is beyond its capacity, the next question becomes critical: how quickly and safely can the patient reach the next level of care?
This is where an effective referral system becomes an essential part of primary healthcare.
Across Sindh, PPHI has developed a network of primary healthcare facilities that provides a range of maternal, newborn and child health services. An increasingly important component of this network is the ambulance and referral service, which connects patients at primary-level facilities with hospitals and higher-level centres when specialised or emergency care is required.
PPHI’s ambulance and referral network is an important extension of primary healthcare in Sindh, particularly for maternal, newborn and child health. With 380+ ambulances and more than 1900 health facilities offering round-the-clock maternity services, PPHI helps connect patients in remote communities with secondary and tertiary care when their needs exceed the capacity of primary facilities.
The referral system is especially critical during obstetric emergencies, where complications such as severe bleeding, obstructed labour or hypertension can become life-threatening within minutes. In such situations, timely identification, stabilisation, referral and transportation are all essential components of care.
Behind the numbers lies the real story of primary healthcare in Sindh. In the last fiscal year alone, PPHI’s network recorded more than 800,000 first antenatal visits, over 500,000 postnatal visits and more than 400,000 deliveries. Each figure represents a woman who entered the healthcare system often from a remote community with an opportunity to identify risk, provide timely maternal care, ensure a safer delivery and, where complications arose, move the patient swiftly towards the specialised care she needed.
Referral is far more than the movement of a patient from one facility to another; it is a continuation of care when the needs of a patient exceed the capacity of a primary health centre. An ambulance, in this context, is not merely a vehicle – it is the vital bridge between the community, the primary healthcare facility and the specialised care that may ultimately save a life.
The strength of a primary healthcare system should therefore be measured not only by the services it provides at the point of first contact, but also by how seamlessly it responds when an emergency demands the next level of care. For a mother in labour, a newborn in distress, the journey to a hospital is not simply a question of distance.
The writer is Deputy Director, Secondary Care at PPHI Sindh.